a fireplace makeover {part one}

Last November we finally tackled our fireplace and gave it a makeover.

I completely love it.

Except like with most projects we do, indecision on the final detail set in and then life just kept going. Which brings us to today – seven months later – with a nearly completed fireplace makeover.

I was going to wait until the whole thing was finished and do a big TA DA! Before & After! but I’m thinking maybe some in-the-process photos are just as fun as the big reveal. And by posting this today, it will hopefully give me the motivation to get this last step finished so I can share the completed look {hopefully next week}.

First, let me remind you of what our fireplace has looked like for the past six years.

Except pretend the tv is not there because it only lived up there for a few months before we came to our senses and realized that it was way to huge and obnoxious to hang front and center in our main living room.

A few things about the fireplace:

It was fine.

But we never could understand the little notches on either side, or the niche in the center and we didn’t like the tile surround. The mantle was fine, maybe a little more detailed than I would choose, but it looked a bit funky with all those extra corners on the dry wall.

We brainstormed for months about what to do to make the fireplace either stand out and become the focal point of the room, or blend in and simplify things.

Finally, one day last November, with our brothers and sisters-in-laws over for a leisurely saturday afternoon, we decided on a whim to just tear the fireplace apart. Don’t worry – we had a plan – but we didn’t know until that afternoon that we were actually going to do that plan.

Down came the mantle.

Out came the tile. The guys decided it was just easier to cut the tile out and re-drywall. Pulling off the tile would have damaged the drywall so much they probably would have had to replace it anyway.

We already put the two built-ins on either side of the fireplace, and we just wanted a chunky, clean mantle to run across the fireplace visually joining all three sections together. Ryan built a simple box, then added a top piece and trimmed it out with pre-made molding.

Nothing fancy, but it gave us the substantial mantle we wanted.

Next came the kinda crazy part: we decided to wrap the top portion of the fireplace wall with cedar shingles. We were thinking we’d do wide horizontal planks, but when our friend suggested shingles, we both instantly loved the idea. It’s totally unexpected, adds lots of texture, but still remains slightly neutral and gives us a sort of cottagy/outdoorsy look.

Random, for sure, but this room needed something interesting.

To get started, Ryan attached cedar strips of wood {lath} directly to the wall where the shingles would be nailed in.

Once those were up along one side, we couldn’t help ourselves and started nailing in a few shingles just to make sure we loved it.

{this was day two. Ryan’s brother & sister-in-law went home, my aunt & uncle came over. It was a revolving door of helpers}.

Yes! Love! So they kept going … filling in that terrible niche and wrapping the chimney with those little boards.

Later that night when family had gone home, a few neighbor friends stopped by to see the progress and we somehow talked them into helping.

These final three worked late into the evening and finished up the shingles. I’m not exactly sure what their system was, but they were quick. I think we had two compressors and two nail guns going at a time.

When we decided to go with shingles, Ryan jokingly suggested mounting an elk head and I thought it was a brilliant idea. He was so shocked, he ordered one right away before I could change my mind.

I love it. I have the same height, but ours has a pellet stove. Anyways, I’ve seen those shingles done on the inside of “Good Luck Charlie” and always liked the idea. Now, this. Whooo wah. Showing hubby tonight.

My question is about the molding along the paint line (I also have that – but done before I found you and I have the bigger portion of paint below). Digress, sorry, my question is what type is it? Thanks for the time.

Oh my gosh! I LOVE it!! Love, Love, Love!! It looks great! What a brilliant idea…I would have never thought of shingles for inside the house. You’re right, it’s unexpected and makes it really standout in the best way! Great job! Can’t wait to see part two!

What I love most is you respond to everyone not just the ones that love what you do. Your sweetness shines through and that’s why I read! We just built a new house and the fireplace is so expected. Not quite sure what we will do yet, but this is an awesome and unique idea! Looks great.

Love the shingles!! It really warms up the room and I love the texture it adds to the space! They are so nice in their natural color and I think they would also look so pretty white-washed to have a weathered greyed look:)

I really enjoy your Ideas and style for your home. I was wondering where you do keep your tv? We are about to upgrade to the big flat screen, and I can’t seem to figure out how to blend it in and don’t want to put it over our fireplace.

For football season, we put the tv along the right wall perpendicular to the fireplace. It was just a temporary solution {it sat on a long desk} so that we could host playoff/superbowl parties and watch the games all together. We do not watch a ton of tv, so now the tv is in our upstairs bonus room. We have a small tv that we may put in our kitchen over the fridge just to have it available, but for the most part, tv watching is done upstairs. I’ll take photos.

Sorry, I liked your fireplace the way it was. I understand about not liking the niche – but you could have just filled that in and be done with it. I think your shingles do not do your house justice and will look dated very quickly.

You are probably right – the fireplace will look dated years from now or we will grow tired of the shingles … but it will be so easy to remove the shingles and the lath and just re-drywall the chimney. It’s what we were going to do to begin with, so we’ll just call this an intermittent decorating risk.

I am so glad to see the elk head. I have had a bear head on our stone fireplace for three years and we love it! His name is rocky and he’s part of our family. I can’t wait to see the rest of the reveal. Especially what you did with the tv. So many people couldn’t believe we would hang a bear head and not a tv on Our fireplace, but my hubs didn’t want to look up to watch tv. You have a great team of helpers. Awesome progress so far!

I vaguely remember a photo (maybe around Super Bowl time) of you next to a fireplace and I emailed my friend & said “I think Emily (as if you are our neighbor), added stone to her fireplace” — ha! I am wondering if that is still to come in this reveal?? We must be complete stalkers, if we notice when 1/8 of a photo shows a change in your home & we take note! Ha! It looks great so far! Thanks for sharing!

We are always making changes to our house – mostly just rearranging furniture, but there’s always something brewing! I’m going to do a better job of showing ‘in the process’ photos rather than the finished results. Mostly because those finished results seem to never come :)

Love it! Our fireplace makeover is moving in the opposite direction, as we have changed our mind on how we want to do it, so it’s in a demolicious state right now. Suffice to say, my two boys have both made the comment ‘Didn’t you start that project in December?’. Not good.